Kheldane

Man, Shenzhen is awsome! It sure puts things in perspective doesn't it? We're all "will he or won't he" about signature tower and there's probably a building like that going up every month somewhere in china... well, not as tall, but they are building them pretty tall. I was in Beijing last month, but there aren't really many tall ones there - but they are building a new CCTV skyscraper that looks pretty sweet. It makes you ralize though, it's not really the buildings that matter, it's the quality of life. Or perhaps I should say, if the quality of life sucks, tall buildings don't make it more palatable. Just my observation while over there...

Just what are we in the business of doing? And who has learned from that mistake?

I just wish they had left it at 55 stories and kept the prices lower, they could have sold all the units by now. Perhaps the older design would have been more profitable? Look at how narrow the tower is now, it doesn't even take up the whole lot, and that's a relatively small lot. They should have designed the building to get maximum utility out of the lot, put the pool on top like viridian (seriously, who wants to swim in a pool only 3 or 4 stories removed from the street? "Hey look a view of a parking garage!"). They should have made the units smaller and cheaper. What are they asking? $479,000 for 900sqft ? That's $532 per sqft. But who's going to pay almost $500k - that's a limited population. They should have droped the per-unit sqft down to 450 total, and jacked up the price per sqft to $600, resulting in a unit price of $270,000 for a cracker-box-in-the-sky. There is a much larger of population of urban hipsters/young professionals that need no more room than a common hotel room with a kitchen. They could have sold every unit by now...for more profit!!

@otacon - your photos are off the hook! I like that you wait until the "magic hour" to take them, skyscrapers reflecting sunsets are the best!!

Yes, for example: The park accross from the library, which provides housing at the $0 price point...

My bad. I like "somewhat libertarian" better though...at least it is somewhat descriptive. "paleoconservative" is so vague that it sounds like you're trying to choose a vague name to avoid commiting to any idea. Well, I guess the word "somewhat" is the very definition of wishy-washy though, isn't it? Obviously it's important to have your own views and not simply subscribe to a party line. Nobody ever said all libertarians will see eye-to-eye on every issue. Just make sure your views are consistent. I don't think the official libertarian party platform is consistent, so my personal views diverge from it pretty drastically. Anyway, don't be shy about your beliefs on the forum, you aren't the only non-republican/democrat on here. Don't be an apologist either - reason your way through an issue, pick your stance, and then defend it. If you're right you will inevitably win the argument...

The plot thikens...Really, the economic timing of this thing couldn't be worse. If this was January 2005 I would say this thing is for sure - but slight cracks of instability in the economy continue to linger on people's minds in my opinion, and that makes it hard to sell assets this expensive. I think it's priced too high for nashville, but hopefully I'm wrong. Think about it: $400K for a 1 bedroom accross from a hobo farm on church street, or $400K for 4-bedroom mcmansion in williamson county...it takes a pretty specific demographic to choose option A, and there are only so many of those people in this town. Plus, one has to think that the condo bust in Miami is having an effect on the entire market...

You would rather claim that description than "Libertarian"? Get with the program, man...

How embarrassed will you be if this actually happens?? J/K But seriously,,, cheap electricity, anyone? Isn't it just a matter of time before personal residences start getting more wind and solar power? What better place to mount a windmill than 1000 feet up? Aesthetics be damned, we need some carbon-free energy up in this piece! Am I completely off the mark?

Not to detract from the ongoing "will he or won't he" debate, but I had a thought about sig. tower... what if instead of that art deco crown, what if they put one of those big electricity generating wind mills up there. Then the power could be used to supply the whole building (and probably a few others?) and give the owners free eco-friendly power for as long as they live ther. Of course it wouldn't be totally free since those things require maintenance. Is it just me or would that be cool as hell?

On that point, I 'd just like to say whoever was in charge of choosing the trees for church street is beyond retarded. I don't remember exactly what species they were (oak or something), but I know what they were not: Ailanthus or Pawlonia. Those are the only two trees worth planting in urban envirnments because they are fast growing and pollution tolerant. If they had planted those two trees then we would already have some good-sized shade trees downtown, but instead they choose some retarded oak tree...idiots!!

Man, I really hope they don't try to redraw this thing drastically at such a late date. I want sig to be a reality as much as anyone else, but this whole thing is looking very uncertain. I'm betting the crown will be done before signature is done.

I like that one a lot! Ahh, good memories of October - my favorite month!!

^Best one yet!

[borat]Very Niiiiice!!![/borat] Good idea for a thread!

Do you think you would? Get your $400,000 ready! That neighborhood is drastically over-priced.

LOL! I truely want signature to happen but I just have this gut feeling that I won't happen. I really hope that I am wrong about this. The whole real-estate market bust is the one thing that could derail it , and the bust appears to be growing more profound each day....at least it's getting more media attention each day. It may have been shortsighted for tony to turn down the TIF money as well.... Best case scenario if the plan does fall through: He manages to still build a smaller version of the same building, maybe in the neighborhood of 45 stories...

They probably think commuter rail is too expensive because they're trying to fund it like the lebanon line - that is; fully with government funds. What they should be doing is strong-arming CSX into funding and operating it, and just paying them some kind of "inconvenience fee" , and maybe covering their liability insurance. Plus they don't need to build the elaborate stations that were constructed on the lebanon line. So sure, maybe commuter rail is too expensive the way they want it to be, but the way they want it to be is retarded and overly extravagant. I'm talking gravel or grass parking lots, cheap press-board construction platforms, tents instead of awnings. A plastic sign that says "Smyrna Station" or whatever. I guarantee I could build each station for less than $5000 - well, maybe . I guarantee a Kheldane-quality station would be way cheaper than the station those arrogant urban planners are talking about. And the trains - we should seek out some more of those $1 per car deals around the country. And we should turn our local youth loose on the trains and let them spray-paint them with the Music City Star logo - and other logos they see fit to paint...

Agreed, that landport is the obvious choice for a gulch station because it's already built and because it's on the downtown side of the tracks and relatively close to the greyhound bus station. By the way, I still haven't heard any indication of how they plan to convince CSX to let them use their track space. Maybe leasing the right-of-ways is what they have in mind. I really hope they don't do BRT, that would just be retarded. I think they would have huge ridership if they did a commuter line similar to the lebanon line on the southeast (m-boro to nashville with airport stop) and south (columbia to nashville) sides of town. Oh, and the northeast (gallatin to nashville) side would also probably be very successful.

I said Tennessee Central, but after further investigation it's actually Nashville & Eastern RR. I guess they probably own little snippets of track all over nashville - I wish they had route maps. Theck out this web site: http://www.nerr.com/ It has a link to the Nahsville & Western RR - that's what I was talking about earlier when I was saying they had re-opened the ashland city rail line. I wish there were a way to find out if they have begun using the bridge over the bordeaux cumberland river again - that would be interesting. If NERR finds the MCS comm-rail system to be profitable (damn, I hope they're making a profit off that deal), then maybe the Ashaland city spur would be the next to see operation since it's owned by the same company.

Yes, the ticket price is rediculously high. I think the fact that people have to transfer to buses could be a big turn-off as well. These are suburbanites we're talking about here. The whole reason they live out in the middle of nowhere is so they don't have to "mix" with the urban population - and that includes riding on buses with them. Tennessee Central Railroad should have convinced them to extend service out to the west side of town, I think TCR has some trackage in that direction as well. I guess they connect through the gulch on CSX track? Anyway - I will be curious to see how many people shell out $10 per day to ride that thing.

Well...Do They deserve forums? The question here is whether Murfreesboro deserves one, not whether other cities do also. You should figure out a way to "undo" your vote since it's invalid.

Actually, I think this has changed just within the past year or two. I saw them doing some major re-working on the tracks a year ago and I remember reading somewhere that they refurbished the tracks so trains could make runs to the cheatham county industrial site, which sits just accross the cheatham co. border. I don't know how often it is used now, but I do know that its status as an abandoned line has changed quite recently...

The idea of a tunnel is probably a non-starter - when I went to MTSU the whole campus flooded any time there was a decent rain storm. The campus has remarkably poor drainage - it's essentially a pancake-flat field... When I was there (6 years ago ), I remember an article in the campus paper that featured a drawing of the MTSU Master Plan. It had buildings filling up those intramural fields and stretching out to Rutherford Blvd. I'm not sure how official that plan was though....